Gold Nugget 192 - Remover of the Bound

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      Some “remove the bound” between church and state.  Both of these are Divine institutions – the one spiritual in its nature, and the other secular.  The spheres of the two are distinct; and each within its own sphere is independent of the other.  But how hard have men found it to let the landmarks between Church and state remain where God set them!

      In one country the Church invades the domain of the state, directing and controlling it – a usurpation which, in its fully developed form, is Vaticanism.  In another country the state encroaches upon the domain of the Church, and exercises rule in sacred things – which is Erastianism. …

      Some “remove the bound” between science and religion.  The conflict between the two is concerned very much about the landmarks of their respective provinces.  In old times it was the theologian who was generally the chief offender.  It was the Church that forced Galileo to abjure the sublime truths of his scientific creed, and that condemned the three laws of Kepler as heretical. 

      At present, however, the chief “remover of the bound” is the scientist.  The student of physical nature, unless he be decidedly a Christian, is prone to lack ability to appreciate moral evidence.  Thus some of our most eminent scientific investigators in these times would have us give up our faith in moral freedom, in personal immortality, and in the existence of God himself.  But the domain of physical science is one province of truth, while that of religion is another.

      Scientific questions are to be settled on scientific grounds, and by men who have had scientific training.  The theologian, on the other hand, must keep within his own frontier, and resolutely defend those moral facts and religious truths with which it belongs to him to deal.  It is his function to assert the reality of moral freedom, the supremacy of conscience, the intuition of immortality, and those deep experiences of guilt and soul-hunger to which only the gospel of Christ can respond.  A curse shall fall upon those who remove these landmarks.

The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 149, Hosea 5:10, (C. Jerdan)

Gold Nugget 192

Remover of the Bound

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